Mithra and gender

[Cerulia]

Hi! Some background first: I don't have FFXI yet, but I've been looking at a lot of websites trying to decide which race I'm going to pick, and I'm wavering between female human and mithra (I'm a female human - mostly - in real life :p ).

The thing is, if there were male mithra I'd definitely be a female mithra, but as the mithra are female only I wouldn't want everyone assuming that I'm really male in RL and I'm just playing a mithra for the stats or something. It's bad enough already having people assume you're a guy because 'Girls don't play games'...

Anyway, my real question is, is this what happens? When you see a mithra do you think it's actually a male? And if yes, do you feel the same way about female humans, or if you see a female human do you guess that that's actually a female?

Sorry if the whole question seems kind of dumb, I just got so sick in other MMOGs of constantly having to correct people about my gender... Don't want to make a char creation choice that makes the problem worse ^_~

Thanks for any help you can give!

[Rubik]

http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/sho...threadid=23823

[Cerulia]

Hm, ok, thank you, I'd looked over that thread already but I'd thought it was really more about males who play mithra... Looking at it again it does kind of answer my question, it sounds like being a mithra is just like having a female char in AC, plenty of people of either gender play them so no one makes assumptions about your RL gender (Or at least they shouldn't!). I can live with that ^_^

Besides, I'd probably end up making a mithra regardless... After 3 years of playing AC the option to actually make a non-human is too tempting! ^_~

Thanks very much!

[Wombat Woo]

For the most part, people will probably set the gender default of the person behind the avatar to male. Sexist thought perhaps, and gaming times are changing rapidly, but still it is probably the safest assumption. However what I have seen more of recently is people starting to refer to the gender of the avatar. A little role playing doesn't hurt and one can't screw up the gender of the avatar they are speaking to except for Galka perhaps. Technically they should be "it".

Once you let your true gender be known beware though. If it were male, I think most reactions would be, "Ho hum just another guy, ZZZzzzzz...."

Female is another story. Any type of reaction can happen, from a reasonable, "Hey thats cool, nice to meet you" to "Gandolf violates so-n-so's leg" Of course while this little munchkin reject is having it way with your leg you have a damn goblin mugger beating you over the head. However one constant would result. More attention, more tells, more invites, bigger friendlist for better or worse. Not everybody likes that extra attention.

You have already played a mmorpg though so I imagine you know what can happen. AC was a great game, my 60 dagger/life would agree. Alas AC2, tubine what did you do?!? You took all the cool AC stuff away and alienated your existing AC userbase in the process.

[Cerulia]

Thanks very much for the reply wombat! Was very helpful, from the sound of it it's a lot like AC was - Although I never really had any harassment problems in AC, maybe because people assume that you're male unless you tell them otherwise. In which case, I guess it's a good thing, so... yay! ^_^

And I agree about AC2! I was really really excited about that game till they let us all in the beta... It's like they intentionally tried to make a game as different from AC as they could!

[Synbios]

Somehow, on the internet, it's always safe to go by the rule of always female unless proven otherwise. There are just too many people who goes around acting as girls, just in my linkshell alone there are like 5 female humes who are actually male in real life.

[tazirai]

Hello
I play a female hume in ffxi and a fem taru and mithra.

The way I see it is , I play what i like and the female form, whether its CG or flesh and blood appeals to me.
I love lookin at it so i play one.
Now heres the kicker, Even my best friend in real life is a guy, when im in game i refer to him as her.
i'd say 90% of my LS is female characters or so. only few male elvaan, and a couple galka. and I knwo most of them to be guys.
We do have some female players too.
I when people ask me abotu so and so , I refer to the avatars gender when talkign about them.

Nothin wrong with that.

Some people dont understand why people play the opposite sex,
maybe its not for them to understand.

[Coinspinner]

No one in any party I've been in has ever referred to my Mithra as "she". Several Mithra I've partied with have been offended by players refering to them as "he" though.

[Hisdon]

from experience of being a Mithra (beta) I'd have to say I loved it. I could use any emote I wanted and it wouldn't look wierd (now that I'm an Elvaan, I can't throw ^.^ and ^_^ around every other line of text )

The only thing I found wierd bout this game is that pretty much every leg piece of armor is panties on the females. Only Sabika, Hose, Breeches, and Slops along with a few other pieces appear as pants.

Being hit on? My best friend in the game did hit on my till I told him I was a guy (god that was funny ) but other than that I was never really hit on. My pts refered to me as she and I simply said "I'm a guy >.>" and it was fine, hell sometimes they still called me "she."

Finally, I had 1 bad case where a guy stalked me for about a month. He refered to me as his master and /telled me as soon as I logged on pretty much everytime. Hell he was in my pt on the last day event...freaky shit...he finally called me his sweatypie and that freaked me out lol. What's even more messed up, he's on my retail server and we pted again ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

[Rivant]

I almost always go by the avatar. I'll even go by the avatar even if I know that a female character is a male player. I have used female characters before (not in FFXI, but other games) because they're just fun to look at. Also, players have tended to be nicer to me hahaha- go fig ;-)

In those instances its never bothered me that people around me were talking about 'she' this, and 'her' that. It's an avatar after all. I'm not a black mage in real life either, ya know ;-) If other players around me started calling me a warrior and to bust out my sword, you'd call those people silly after seeing the robe and the staff. I don't see how its any different than with avatar gender. You don't see too many people running around using their First and Last names.. so I think its really implicit that avatars aren't really meant to be (necessarily) the same as players.
People have even corrected me when I refer to a fellow party member or linkshell member as "she" when they know its a guy. The send me /tell messages and are like "Dude, that's not a chick," so I just respond "'Dude,' I know..."
Anyways that's my 2 cents.

[Socrates]

here's what i think.

if you want a GF, stop playing FF11. this is the wrong direction to take if you want one. it's actually exacerbating the fact that you like to avoid human contact. btw, this isn't directed towards anyone. =)

anyhow, in game most people are smart enough to know that very very very *very* few girls play this game. i guestimate that NA players are probably 95% guys. not sure about JP. likewise, most guys know you're probably a guy even if you play mithra.

i had only ONE guy that said, "wow, you're so cute, mithras are so cute."

...to which i replied...

/blush
/s why thank u!
:angel:

[Awntawn]

Originally posted by Socrates
here's what i think.

if you want a GF, stop playing FF11. this is the wrong direction to take if you want one. it's actually exacerbating the fact that you like to avoid human contact. btw, this isn't directed towards anyone. =)

anyhow, in game most people are smart enough to know that very very very *very* few girls play this game. i guestimate that NA players are probably 95% guys. not sure about JP. likewise, most guys know you're probably a guy even if you play mithra.

So true :sweat:

[Onizeirus]

i dont think its a matter of wanting to fill the void in a persons life by using a female avatar. (though in few instances in can be true) Personally... im a lover of woman. i like the way they look, the shapes of there body and the styles of there hair in all its forms be it Real life, art or in this case CG. to me its just another form of the beauty of women to enjoy. i have had my mains in all mmos ive played males and all my alts were female. Women are beautiful beings that captivate me from the lockes of her hair to the toes on there feet. but thats just me and no im not a lonely man and i get out quite a bit. I like to be with women and not be them. but to those that do...thats there prerogative. when im playing i see them as the avatar until they say otherwise. thats my 2 gil

[Anom]

.......POETRY TIME!!!

For the first time in playing this game, I had a brand new player think I was a chick.... Even when I talked like a guy... he kept saying shit like "ladies first" and weird stuff.... lets hope stalking don't come later...

(man my signature on these forums back before the NA release referred to me going as a "lesbian mithra"... I guess it's backfiring on me now... )Just waiting for some freak to ask my avatar to do something nasty with another mithra cause it would be "hot"...

...cause you know.... it would

[Cerulia]

Wow, haven't been able to get to this site at all for days, very weird... Anyway...

Originally posted by Socrates
anyhow, in game most people are smart enough to know that very very very *very* few girls play this game. i guestimate that NA players are probably 95% guys. not sure about JP. likewise, most guys know you're probably a guy even if you play mithra.

That's exactly the attitude I was worried about originally! I am a girl who plays this game, and I bet there are a lot more too (Certainly, there were plenty in AC...). I think quite a few people got confused and thought I was a guy asking if people would mistake me for a girl, but it's actually the other way round!

The truth is, the whole idea that 'girls don't play computer games' is pretty outdated, if it was ever true... I have two sisters and we all play them, and I know a lot of other females who play too...


Anyway, I did make a mithra in case anyone's interested - Though now I'm agonising over which hairstyle to pick! It's between 7A and 8B (http://www.shadow-dragons.com/races.htm)... I love the back of 7A's hair, but I hate that fringe that comes so low... and I love the fringe of 8B but I've got this thing against pigtails!

Oh well, nevermind, I've got 8B just now and I'll probably stick with it... darn pigtails ^_~